He went to the remote area primarily to provide preventive care: to make sure people who didn’t have access to regular medical care were diagnosed with and could manage their diabetes, their high blood pressure, their thyroid disease. He kept their colds and upper respiratory infections in check, ensuring they missed as little work as possible. He treated their wounds, stopping infection before it spread.

Now Mike Moore has taken aim at the manufacturers and distributors of opioid painkillers, claiming they should pay for the epidemic of addiction and death that has swept this nation. As you'll hear in a moment, he has powerful new evidence that he says proves that states like Ohio, among the hardest-hit by the opioid epidemic, should collect billions from all the companies he's suing.

Donald Trump (Alec Baldwin) gets his wish to have never been president granted and sees how the lives of Michael Cohen (Ben Stiller), Brett Kavanaugh (Matt Damon), Robert Mueller (Robert De Niro) and more have changed in an alternate reality.

The law’s guarantee of coverage for people regardless of their pre-existing conditions, financial assistance for private insurance, rules establishing a basic minimum set of benefits insurance policies must cover and more would vanish.

Expansion of Medicaid to low-income adults, also is stricken.

Eliminating the Affordable Care Act would increase the national uninsured rate by 50 percent and lead to more than 17 million people losing health coverage.

The deadline for News Sentinel Person of the Year nominations is today. The qualification is "their actions must have had an impact this year."

I nominate Maribel Perez Wadsworth, the President of USA TODAY NETWORK for Gannett. She's had a tremendous impact on Knoxville by destroying its once great local newspaper of record.

In her previous posts at Gannett, she "led digital strategy for local newsrooms" and "architected the digital subscription strategy."

How's that working out for Gannett and the News Sentinel?

She recently told employees during a company-wide conference call that "digital revenue is not replacing declining print revenues, and some belt-tightening will be coming in the new year." By belt-tightening, she means more layoffs and gutting of newsrooms.

Tune in on Friday, December 14 @ 7:30 PM to Democratic TV (here!) to hear a candid discussion between Tennessee Democratic Party Chair Mary Mancini and TNDP Executive Committee member Dr. Mark Harmon discussing the role the TNDP played in the campaign leading up to the November 6th election.

I haven’t yet received an answer to the letter I addressed to Mayor Rogero on October 28, 2018, regarding the whereabouts of the homeless evicted from the I-40/Broadway encampment. As an ordinary citizen, even I can answer that question: they are scattered throughout the inner neighborhoods, and can be seen pushing carts filled with their belongings on N. Broadway, N. Central, Chapman Highway, and elsewhere. In fact, I am attaching a photo taken today of two on my block in a residential neighborhood in South Knoxville.

I have also stopped by the day courtyard constructed at the I-40/Broadway site and rarely see more than a half dozen persons. Why would anyone choose to sit on cold metal furniture when they can sit on the sidewalk in the sun?

As I’ve said previously, the problem of the growing homeless population requires an emergency solution, something I don’t yet see being profferred by the city administration.

In this News Sentinel op-ed, deputy to the mayor and chief operating officer David Brace explains the city's decision to appeal a recent ruling that they must reinstate a former engineering staff member who left his civil service position for a job in the Haslam administration.

When his $155,900-a-year job was eliminated during a reorganization, Steve King (who is eligible for a $79,902 per year pension) requested a hearing to be reinstated to his former civil service job. The hearing officer agreed and ordered the reinstatement, which would result in demotion for two current civil service employees.

Victor Ashe's recent columns criticizing Mayor Rogero regarding the controversy are written "inaccurately and vindictively – in a destructive pot-stirring manner so common in Victor’s gossip column" according to Brace, who says the News Sentinel has "failed to report the facts" about the situation.

Brace also says it's ironic that Ashe is "the only Knoxville mayor to be found guilty in a federal employment rights lawsuit for retaliation and willful discrimination."

Taken in its entirety, the new waiver guidance appears to lay out a path for state officials to pursue, via waivers, changes to the ACA that Congress has not been able to achieve through legislation. Whether and how states respond to the new waiver guidance remains to be seen.

Individual 1 says he will shut down the Federal government if Congress doesn't give him money to build his stupid wall that Mexico was supposed to pay for.

OK, then. Whatever.

But what is a Federal government shutdown? Best I can tell from previous shutdowns is that National Parks are closed. VA paperwork might get slowed down or something, too, not sure. Mostly it causes aggravation for a lot of innocent bystanders. Congress still gets paid, though. Soldiers don't.

If the crybaby in chief wants a real government shutdown he should go all in. Otherwise he's weak.

If he were an authentic tough guy, he would shut off power at the White House, Congress and the Supreme Court. He would furlough all Secret Service and Capitol Police. Ground Air Force One and Marine One. Shut down the Pentagon, order all military to stand down and recall all troops from overseas posts. Ground all military aircraft and order all ships to port. Turn off all government computers. Shutdown the DOJ, FBI, ATF, DEA, Border Patrol, federal marshals, federal courts, etc. Suspend food and drug inspections. Shut down all federal health and scientific research programs. Suspend all federal road building funds. Furlough air traffic controllers and TSA. Turn off all GPS satellites. Recall all NASA astronauts back to Earth from the ISS. Suspend VA, Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid payment processing. Etc.

But that would be silly. And people would be pretty pissed off and vote all these doofuses out at the next opportunity.

Which is why threatening a government shutdown is a stupid, idle threat.

The Tennessean reports that "Gov.-elect Bill Lee said Monday he is open to promoting a school voucher program as part of his upcoming legislative agenda and committed himself to being an advocate for school choice in Tennessee."

Lee cites his own anecdotal evidence of mentoring an at-risk youth and getting him placed in a charter school. The kid's grades improved and now he's going to college, which is proof that school choice works according to Lee. Is it possible that Lee provided a positive influence in the kid's home life and that was the difference?

Anyway, with a new boss more open to the idea and new leadership in the legislature, school vouchers have a better chance than ever of advancing in the next session.